Mobile platform seeks to boost engagement

A new mobile learning platform called TEx aims to improve student outcomes by providing an engaging environment with which students want to interact.

Created by mobile app development firm Robots and Pencils, TEx, or the Total Educational Experience, targets post-secondary education.

TEx is the brainchild of the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning (ITL).

“In creating software, we take a human-to-human approach rather than a B2B or B2C approach. This allows us to use our expertise across industry verticals,” said Phil Komarny, CEO Education at Robots and Pencils. “The ability to partner the best of pedagogy with cutting-edge technology has created an exciting platform that will change how education is delivered.”

For the past year, the team at Robots and Pencils has, in collaboration with the ITL, designed and created the custom learning platform that gives students the ability to access all course content on the iPad, but also allows faculty and coaches to track students’ progress in real-time.

This window into a student’s pace and engagement provides a unique opportunity for professors to intervene and support a student who may be falling behind.

In addition to allowing faculty to track progress from day one, TEx has also made it more convenient for students to access resources, connect with fellow students, and interact with course facilitators.
Students are able to access course content and have the ability to work on assignments while offline, an improvement over web-based student learning environments.

Available for the first time this fall, freshmen students enrolled in the biomedical sciences degree program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will be piloting TEx, exchanging traditional textbooks for the iPad.

Laura Devaney

Laura Ascione Devaney is the Managing Editor, Content Services at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland's prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
When she isn't wrangling her two children, Laura enjoys running, photography, home improvement, and rooting for the Terps.
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